LOGINDiana’s POVThe afternoon air tasted of iron and dry leaves, a sour rot undercutting the heat.“Can’t we wait until night?” I asked, voice low and tight.“No.” George’s answer came like a stone. “This lane is empty most days… just farmers. We need someone to stumble across them, raise the alarm that a beast did it. That story shields us. With the bodies already beginning to rot, we can’t afford any trace back to us.”My palms burned as George and I hauled the limp corpses across the dirt. Bianca followed behind, scattering leaves over our tracks. The sting of disinfectant from the bottle she carried cut through the earthy air.The bodies Kael had flung from the window seemed to grow heavier with every step, as if death itself had latched onto them. By the time we reached the ravine, sweat plastered my shirt to my back and my arms trembled with exhaustion.They hit the water with a dull splash that the distant roar of the expressway swallowed whole. George exhaled raggedly and pressed
Kelvin’s POVThe sun pressed down like molten iron, baking dust and corrugated roofs until the air tasted of heat and grit. Sweat ran down my spine. I flicked a gold lighter open, shut, open again… anything to keep my fingers moving while I waited.Sovereign was late. Again.I leaned against the hood of my car, jaw tight, staring at the empty road. Heat shimmered in waves that seemed to mock me. Did the bastard think my time was worthless?I had other places to be; plans to push my newfound power forward, plans to destroy Kael myself.Finally, an engine roared. A black SUV slid into the clearing, gravel spitting under its tires. I straightened, pocketed the lighter, jaw clenched.Sovereign climbed out, sunglasses catching the glare. He raised a hand as if the sun itself were nothing. “Kelvin, apologies for the delay.”“Apologies don’t erase the heat,” I muttered, half to myself.Then my gaze snagged on the passenger door. A man… no, a boy my age, stepped out, swaddled in bandages from
Diana’s POVThe sitting room smelled of fried plantain and lemon detergent; warm, homely, yet suffocating, like a blanket pressed too tightly against my skin. I shifted in my seat while Eva’s mother poured tea into tiny porcelain cups. The clink of spoon against saucer was too loud, too polite, too safe for the storm boiling inside me.Eva sat beside me, her hand brushing mine, eyes shining like she’d just won a prize. “I’m so glad you’re here, Diana. Finally, we can spend nights together. I’ve already set up the spare bed.”My throat tightened. Her happiness pressed against me, heavy and stifling, like a velvet cloak I couldn’t shrug off. My mother’s voice cut through the soft chatter: “Eva, don’t say it like that. We aren’t staying. First thing tomorrow morning, we’re leaving for my hometown. I already called my sister. She’ll take us in.”The words struck me like stones. My chest collapsed. Tomorrow? Leaving? Vicky’s warning rang in my head like a drumbeat: If you don’t move now,
Sovereign’s POVThe war with the Dravens had ended. I could feel it in the marrow of my bones, like a storm pressing against the skin of the world. The fires had gone cold on the front lines, but the whispering aftertaste of Draven bloodlust still crawled through the city alleys like wind through dead leaves.I am the one who decides their fates now. Let Kelvin inherit his brother’s and father’s wealth. I would let him sit on that hollow throne long enough to taste it, then take everything away and savor the victory with my daughters.But the war was not my greatest concern.No. My greatest concern was her.My daughter.Diana.Her name tasted bittersweet on my tongue. I should have raised her, shaped her with my hands and voice. Instead she had softened in the shadow of strangers who dared call themselves family. The Johnsons had stolen her affection, bound her loyalty with kindness and lies, while I, her true father, was an exile in her heart.Every time I heard her call another man
Abegail’s POVA fire had raged in my veins since Kelvin’s hands first pinned me to the sheets. Heat licked along my skin as his body pressed into mine; urgent, hungry, as if he needed to prove something not only to me but to the whole damned world.I let him have me hard and fast, like a storm ripping through a narrow valley, and I returned him with equal ferocity. Our moans bounced off the carved wooden walls of Kael’s mansion — Kael’s. But soon, no longer.When at last we collapsed in a tangle of sweat, lips, and ragged breaths, Kelvin rolled to the side, laughing breathlessly. His laughter wasn’t light; it carried the sharp edge of triumph, the giddy madness of a man who had climbed out of the shadows and finally stolen the sun.I propped myself on one elbow and traced a fingertip across the sweat-slick planes of his chest. “You feel it, don’t you? This is ours. No more living in Kael’s shadow, no more begging for scraps. Everything he has, will be ours.”Kelvin tipped his head, a
Kelvin’s POVThe news tasted sweeter than spiced wine.Abegail’s words still throbbed in my skull as I buttoned my brother’s favorite black coat, the one Kael always wore when he wanted to seem untouchable. Tonight, it clung to me instead. My reflection in the tall mirror smirked back, mocking and satisfied. For years, Father and the others had said Kael was the only one strong enough to lead.Me?Too weak. Too timid. A shadow.Well. Tonight, the shadow would walk in Kael’s skin.I drove in silence to the meeting place the Sovereign had chosen. The forest pulsed with moonlight; damp leaves whispered beneath my boots as I strode toward the clearing. The Sovereign’s banners fluttered from the trees, black silk etched with silver claws, and the scent of burning cedar drifted on the night wind. Murmurs of men thickened ahead like a rising storm.When I stepped into the firelit hall, the elders rose like a dark tide.“Alpha Kelvin,” they thundered.Alpha.The word swelled in my chest.For







